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Most modern operating systems, including Microsoft Windows and OS X by Apple, feature technology to turn off internal devices and manage power to be more environmentally friendly and squeeze every last drop of juice out of batteries on portable computers. Unfortunately many Linux distributions don’t offer these features built in quite yet.

Enter Less Watts, a site dedicated to configuring Linux systems and machines to consume less power. Featuring tips and tricks for reducing power consumption in Linux, and links to a number of projects aimed at bringing these technologies to more and more distributions soon. The site looks to be fairly new, but has a great mailing list which looks like a great resource for anyone trying to reign in their power use on Linux boxes.

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The geniuses over at Plasq have created another application, and while it hasn’t won any awards yet (it’s still in beta) but it’s certain to do so shortly. Skitch allows you to show the world something on your Mac effortlessly rather than try tell them about it in writing or sending massive and unmanageable screenshots. I’m 5 minutes into my experimentation with it and I already can tell this is one of the coolest applications I’ve played with in a while. It makes image capture and annotation a breeze, and does it all with a highly polished elegance.

Skitch allows you to capture screenshots, windows, webcam images, and all sorts of other media into its editing window. Once you have a base image it’s easy to annotate and edit the image with text, handwriting, or other shapes then one click saves it up to the Skitch site on the web for easy sharing. If you don’t want to go the upload route it’s easy to drag your creation into any other application on your Mac, or just save the finished file to disk.

Stay tuned for a much more in-depth review over the next couple of days so stay tuned and check back for more info on this delicious little software treat.

UPDATE:As amazing as the Skitch application is that’s not everything Plasq is throwing on the table with Skitch. Now that I’ve spent a few more minutes with it the service side of Skitch is starting to shine. The ability to save and upload one of your creations (skitches?) to the Skitch service with a single click is wonderfully simple and well implemented. Once the upload is complete you are taken to a webpage for that creation where you can share it with friends as simply as pasting a link into an IM, e-mail, or forum and you can instantly share what you just created. Check out the Skitch page for the photo above.

Ah, yes, another Apple event is nigh, and that normally means the email tips start flooding in. Case in point, this image of the “iPod touch”. Our immediate thought? Clever mockup…after all, it would make sense that Apple continues to make all their products have a similar look and feel. This iPod touch has a striking resemblance to the newly redesigned iMac that Apple released earlier this month. What do you think? Will we be seeing something like this - an OS X-based touchscreen iPod - from Apple tomorrow?

If you are pushing a Mac Pro, time to fire up Software Update, as Apple has just pushed out the Mac Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.1. What’s it do? Straight from the horse’s mouth:

The SMC Firmware Update adjusts fan behavior in Mac Pro. The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder and will launch automatically. Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the process.

So there you have it - fan behavior upgrade. Not too exciting, but still important.

Since the iPhone launched, we have been on the lookout for all the cool web apps that we were sure would begin to show up. We have had quite a few come along, but just a few minutes ago we were able to log in to IRC on our iPhone, and thought that was pretty nifty. So much so, in fact, that I thought we’d share the process on how to do it yourself. Do note, though, that we used Colloquy to help us out here - that is an OS X application, so you do need a Mac to use this method.

Gallery:

For the first time, Apple has released 10.x.10 update to one of their operating systems, due likely to the delay of Leopard. In any event, if you are running OS X, kick Software Update into gear and download the new version. We are running Intel-based Macs, and the download weighs in at 49 MB exactly, and includes the following improvements:

RAW camera support

Mounting and unmounting external USB devices

Support for 3rd party software applications

Security updates

With that out of the way, we can now look forward to the release of OS X 10.5 Leopard. You can get the full scoop on the update straight from Apple at the link below.

Last chance guys - our Parallels 3.0 giveaway ends tonight. You have until midnight to enter to win a free copy of the hottest virtualization software package for Mac OS X. The details on how to win are here, so if you own a Mac and want to run Windows programs in the slickest fashion possible, jump on it.

As a reminder, we announced the other day that we are giving away a copy of Parallels 3.0. Here are the details:

Our Parallels video walkthrough was published on our video show, The Bleeding Edge. We have made the Parallels episode available for your viewing after the jump. You can find the show in iTunes in both high resolution format (suitable for Apple TV) and a smaller iPod format. Go ahead and check out either link, which will take you right to the iTunes pages for the respective format, and if you would be so kind, go ahead and subscribe.

Now, on to entering. All you need to do to enter is write up a short review of the show on the iTunes page. Once you do that, let us know, and you are in. If you leave a review for both the Apple TV and iPod versions, you get two entries into the giveaway. We will run the contest through Sunday, and then randomly choose a winner based on the number of entries we receive. You must live in the USA or Canada to be eligible for the prize.

It’s been a while since we have given away something to you guys, the readers that keep us in business. We have seen a lot of excitement around the Parallels 3.0 feature walkthrough video that we posted the other day. A few people emailed in saying that $79.99 was a bit too rich for their blood for Parallels, although we feel that it is a tremendous value, even at that price. Others have balked at paying $50 to upgrade their software from 2.0. We say forget all that, and instead, just participate in our contest where you can get a new copy of Parallels 3.0 for free. Here are the details:

Our Parallels video walkthrough was published on our video show, The Bleeding Edge. We have made the Parallels episode available for your viewing after the jump. You can find the show in iTunes in both high resolution format (suitable for Apple TV) and a smaller iPod format. Go ahead and check out either link, which will take you right to the iTunes pages for the respective format, and if you would be so kind, go ahead and subscribe.

Now, on to entering. All you need to do to enter is write up a short review of the show on the iTunes page. Once you do that, let us know, and you are in. If you leave a review for both the Apple TV and iPod versions, you get two entries into the giveaway. We will run the contest through Sunday, and then randomly choose a winner based on the number of entries we receive. You must live in the USA or Canada to be eligible for the prize.